Videotaping cheerleaders puts convicted sex offender in jail

ARLINGTON (AP) - A convicted sex offender remained in jail Monday on a charge of violating his parole for allegedly videotaping young cheerleaders at a football game.

Arlington police spokesman James Hawthorne said David James Manchen, 38, is being held without bond on a charge that he violated his 10-year probation for indecency with a child. A hearing on the allegation has not been set.

Manchen was arrested Saturday night at a home in southeast Arlington.

Police said that earlier in the week, parents caught Manchen using a hand-held camcorder to videotape cheerleaders ages 8 to 12 years old at a football game at the Harold Patterson Sports Complex in South Arlington.

When parents noticed Manchen filming the cheerleaders, they approached him and asked him to leave, police said. Although Manchen agreed to leave, he did not want to surrender the videotape.

One man bought the video for $10, saying his daughter was on the tape, and then turned it over to authorities, police said.

A short segment of the video shows the football game. Police said most of the video is of specific body parts of the young cheerleaders.

Manchen was convicted in 1995 of at least one count of indecency with friends of his daughter who were also 8 to 12 years old at the time. As part of his deferred adjudication, Manchen is not allowed within 300 feet of areas where children gather, including public parks and playgrounds.

Police believe Manchen lives both in Irving, where he is a registered sex offender, and in Arlington at the home where he was arrested.